Bengaluru FC were too predictable and got hurt: Gurpreet Sandhu

Dealing with the distraction of Covid-19 sneaking into the Bengaluru FC bubble, analysing an underwhelming Indian Super League (ISL) season, talking about new club coach Marco Pezzaiuoli and why the 0-6 defeat to UAE isn’t panic stations for India, the conversation with goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu featured these and more.

Excerpts:

How do you ready for a competition when people around you catch Covid-19?

It worries you for a short while but when people are isolated and everyone is tested the same day or the next, it does make the situation less stressful. But at the very moment when you get to know that there is a case, it does take you away from your target.

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How do you deal with bubble fatigue?

Mentally, it’s been very tough. When I came back from Australia in September I had to quarantine for 14 days. I was getting some treatment and the physio got Covid so I had to quarantine again for 14 days. Then there was the ISL bubble and the pre-season bubble (before). Now, I know how life can be if there is not much freedom even to do the usual….You are giving everything physically but you don’t have the opportunity to disconnect because every single day you see the same people. But when you know how things are in the country right now, a bubble is one of the safest places to be.

Does staying in a bubble for so long create disconnect with the outside world?

It can put you in a situation where nothing is familiar. After ISL, I went home. On the way, I was scared to travel with people I didn’t know. And when you are home, you tell yourself, “nahi yaar, I can’t go out. I am not used to this.” Also, if you are away from family, friends and partner in a bubble, it becomes triply difficult. It’s okay for one to three months but not beyond. So, I tell people if they are feeling down mentally to speak to a professional. They help a lot because they listen.

Your thoughts on Italian Marco Pezzaiuoli, BFC’s new coach, ahead of Wednesday’s AFC Cup qualifier against Tribhuvan Army Club of Nepal.

Our training has been intense and joyful at the same time. You work so hard, you get so tired but you step off the pitch you feel like “maza aaya, yaar”. That’s the kind of feeling I am having now. It’s good to get pushed. The coach is very knowledgeable (he was a technical director at Eintracht Frankfurt), very demanding—and that’s a good thing—and he loves young players.

Albert Roca, Carles Cuadrat and then Naushad Moosa have been BFC coaches since you joined in 2017. Talk us through your experience with them.

I think it was my first game when coach Roca (now fitness coach at FC Barcelona) mentioned something in the dressing room. He said: “You guys have been paid to come and train every day. Playing or not playing is not your choice but mine.” He helped me broaden my horizon in the game, be it starting from the back, using my distribution, communicating with the whole team, making me one of the captains. That carried on with Carles. With him all we were trying to do was achieve as much as we can without changing much. (But) Sometimes some systems become too stagnant and I think that’s what happened with us last season. We were too predictable and got hurt. Now again, we have something fresh.

Fair to say BFC paid for not being able to replace Miku, Nishu Kumar and Albert Serran?

I feel so. They are players who have had such a big impact and have helped us win trophies. There are huge expectations on people who are filling in their shoes and if they don’t (live up to the expectation) you feel we are missing something. So, when you find something that is working for you try to keep it as long as possible. Unfortunately we couldn’t after three-four years and people had to leave. That is something this fairly new club had to learn.

How do you deal with goalkeeping errors?

I remember Tanumoy Basu, who was my goalkeeper coach in the India U-16 team, he used to tell me that a good goalkeeper always has a short memory. He told me that the moment something happens, if I can forget it as fast as I can, it would be better for me. There have been times when I have sat and wasted nights after games thinking about the mistakes I did on the pitch. It hasn’t helped. It has only helped me when I have thought about it, forgotten it and moved on.

You had a good game against UAE but India still lost 0-6. What do you take from a game like that?

That I did everything I could. As a team, it was a very important game. The moment we decide that we want to use the players that we have brought in, it’s important to learn those lessons. There is a difference between playing five ISL games, 10 ISL games, two seasons in ISL and playing against a top opposition in the international level. The speed of the game; the level of the players you face; being in a different country; it’s a different level. I have experienced it when I played Japan in the Asian Games (2010 pre-quarter finals, India lost 0-5). Those are the games where you learn.

Do long preparatory camps help the senior India team?

After ISL, there is not much to do, and for a national team player not playing games doesn’t help. And then you come to a camp one week before a game, it is not going to help. Long camps can provide that level of competitiveness. Under Bob Sir (Bob Houghton) we would play almost every week when we had long camps. For most of us ISL finished in February and if you have nothing to do after the UAE game, you need a long camp to set you up for the qualifiers (in June).

You recently shared a picture on Twitter with Rahul Dravid. What was the conversation?

That was taken earlier. He was going to stand in goal and save shots from kids. So he came to me and asked for my gloves. He said, it’s nice to have BFC in the city and that we are doing well. He even came to the awards of Bengaluru FC and mentioned all the players. He is very involved; he knows everyone—he was like “this player did well, this player did well”. He is one of the best human beings I have ever met.

Many farmers from your home state are protesting against the new farm laws. How do you see these protests?

It’s a very unfortunate situation and it’s been too long. When your citizens are speaking, I feel they need to be heard. It’s very important to know what people want and to make sure that a solution is provided. At the end of the day, the country is run because of the people and for the people. So it is important to make sure that everyone is happy. It’s a very difficult thing to do—to keep everyone happy—but it is something which is very important. I have family members who have been at the protests. I hope things get better because they are people from our country; they are us, they are our fellow Indians.

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